print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3730
- Title
- Object: The Claims of the Broad Bottom
- Description
-
Satire on former opponents of Robert Walpole contending for places in government after his fall. A group of politicians are ranged around a large table. In the foreground to left Sir John Hynde Cotton holds a paper in front of him carrying his demands to be made a lord of the admiralty, and another behind reassuring disgruntled country members of parliament of his loyalty to "the good old cause", his alleged Jacobite sympathies further demonstrated by papers lying at his feet ("Loyal Song/And ye K[in]g shall enjoy his own again", "10 of June" (the birthday of the Old Pretender). Behind Cotton the country members, described as "Foxh[u]n[te]rs", wear oak-leaves in their hats, and complain of him as a "foulmouthd Cavelier" not worth the post of a "Tide Waiter" (customs officer). Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham, stands behind demanding recognition for his role as a peer and a general with "five nephews in P[arliame]nt"; another man perhaps William Murray (later Lord Mansfield) or Edmund Waller stands behind Cobham saying, "Though I can't speak to be understood I can talk of Figures" (according to Horace Walpole, Waller was "a dull obscure person, of great application to figures and the revenue, which knowledge he could never communicate", letter of 6 November 1747); George Lyttelton laments to William Pitt "we shall get nothing" anxious that he may be "Quartered upon Brother P[it]t and so may my three cousins G[renvi]lles", while Pitt, less despondent, claims "Am I not an Orator? make me Secretary at War - Murray is a Fool to me". George Bubb Dodington sits at the table maintaining that he deserves Samuel Sandys's post as Chancellor of the Exchequer because of his long support of Walpole, and blaming the Duke of Argyll for not leading the former opposition into government. The "ghost" of Argyll himself (who was already ailing and died towards the end of the year) is seated next taking no part in the proceedings although a man stands in shadow behind him pleading desperately for a post, and another, small, man wearing his own hair, points out that he is "as busy as anybody". On the right, John Carteret, explains that his post as Secretary of State for the North prevented him from voting against keeping Hanoverian troops in England, while Lord Chesterfield complains that Carteret has got the job he wanted. Sir Watkin Williams Wynne sits head in hand at the right-hand side of the table announcing that his supporters wish him to be "Lorde and Bashaw of North Wales" despite his Jacobite allegiance; behind him, a group of Weshmen with leeks in their hats and carrying staves, protest that they "desire no such thing", to which he responds, "Peace Varlets ...". In the foreground a large paper lists so-called "Patriot Toasts" in support of the Pretender. In each corner is a head blowing "Broad Bottom". 1 March 1743
Etching
- Production date
- 1743
- Dimensions
-
Height: 197 millimetres (image)
-
Height: 217 millimetres (trimmed?)
-
Width: 310 millimetres (image)
-
Width: 335 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated names
-
Representation of: John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll
-
Associated with: James Stuart, the Old Pretender
-
Representation of: Edmund Waller
-
Representation of: Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
-
Representation of: Sir John Hynde Cotton
-
Representation of: William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham
-
Associated with: Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford
-
Representation of: Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham
-
Representation of: William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
-
Representation of: George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley
-
Representation of: George Bubb Doddington, Baron Melcombe of Melcombe Regis
-
Representation of: John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville
-
Representation of: Sir Watkin Williams Wynne
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3730
